Ballet

Dream team: Alexander Campbell and Sarah Lamb in a rehearsal for The Age of Anxiety (Picture: Bill Cooper)

WH Auden’s poetry, a Leonard Bernstein symphony, four favourite dancers and one booze-fuelled night — choreographer Liam Scarlett talks Lyndsey Winship through the ingredients of his new work for Royal Ballet, The Age of Anxiety

Possibly the best dancing of the evening comes from first soloist Anna Tikhomirova, playing second fiddle to the picture-perfect Evgenia Obraztsova in opening act Emeralds. Tikhomirova’s musicality shines through, and she has the ability to imbue abstract movement with real personality

Swan Lake Reloaded shunts the invincible ballet into the modern day, complete with street dance, text messaging and a cast of smack-addict prostitute swans. Tchaikovsky’s score is mashed-up with electro-pop tracks and it works surprisingly well, despite a few cheesy moments

Sergei Polunin walked out of the Royal Ballet and then quit a production of Midnight Express at the Coliseum just days before the first night. Now Carlos Acosta, principal guest artist at the Royal Ballet, is urging his young Ukrainian rival to leave the stage altogether if he can’t respect its traditions.

Cocaine, disappearances, acid attacks and defections. If anybody had dared to think ballet was a place for posh voices, dainty manners and rigid behaviour, then 2013 has been the year to raise the curtain on some tutu truths.